Founded in 2008, VPN company Perfect Privacy is the result of an international cooperation, with headquarters or significant places of control residing in Switzerland and Panama. They also have offices in New Zealand and Latvia. These countries are advantageous when starting a VPN business, as they are not burdened by the EU’s or the US’ data retention laws. Perfect Privacy offers connections across 40 servers located around the globe in 25 different countries. They develop their software-solutions themselves, so it is worth noting which protocols they work with. For encryption, they are well-versed in today’s standards and thus use OpenVPN, SSH and IPSec, along with PPTP. Their greatest strengths include a very lenient log policy with almost nothing logged on their side which, combined with the list of rare features, is a rare and welcomed packaged. Customizable port forwarding, two types of proxy to use, cascading – which is continuously swapping connections across multiple servers – and even DNS Leak protection are built-in sides of Perfect Privacy’s facets.
There is a very high-quality list of features that come with their service. We have tested these in detail with the help of the client suited for Windows. Yes, this is not exactly Perfect Privacy’s own OS application – they do not have such software. The company requires you to download an open-source client and configuration files, suited for their VPN service. Of course this means that the setup process to establish any VPN connection is slightly longer and a bit more difficult to understand. Naturally, Perfect Privacy does not leave their customers hanging until they dry; for all possible types of device you are supplied with guides that are actually necessary in most cases for a proper setup.
All of this so far might come off as nothing special, but once you have unpacked the necessary configuration files into their respective locations, you are in for a treat. The client – being an open-source model and thus leaving little space for specific design – might not look all that good, but the functions and opportunities are far and wide, mainly focusing on security.
You can apply your own firewall’s protection to the VPN connection you establish. To prevent any non-VPN scavengers looking for your computer’s information, there is a DNS anti-leak feature available. Both of these can be automatically enabled with every VPN connection you establish. Speaking of which, the client itself can be started automatically, with even assigning it to connect to any server right away. This essentially serves as an auto-reconnect function, as if your network is down, the client will attempt to connect to the host you selected at all times.
Another great strength of Perfect Privacy is that they allow literally an unlimited number of simultaneous connections on one account. This is fantastic on one part, but getting overtly eager and connecting 20 or 30 at once might result in speed loss.
You can also browse the deep web, as .onion domains are within reach if you use Perfect Privacy. To further help you with choosing the most suitable connection, they provide real-time server latency checking on their website.
Out of the 25 countries that are reachable, most of them are European. There are key locations available on all significantly inhabited continents: Tokyo, Tel-Aviv, Singapore, New York and Cairo are all cities to “visit” online. With 40 servers, the combination of these two numbers is not bad, but not the best, either.
The idea behind customizable port forwarding is that by selecting a certain port on your router, your connection to any server is done undercover. Picture it this way; a connection without port forwarding travels on an open road to its destination. It relies on “shields”, safety protocols to defend itself like OpenVPN or IPSec. With port forwarding, the connection does not even travel on the road, it hides from plain sight. Default port forwarding usually refers to the port 80 on a router. Customizable port forwarding lets you select any port manually for the server you connect to, making your hide and seek even more successful.
VPN cascading is a rare sight; it is a type of connection that first of all lets you connect to multiple VPN servers at the same time – in Perfect Privacy’s case, this means four. These connections then switch between each other, hiding you even more from any unwanted attention. You can also connect to VPN servers via proxies: HTTP and SOCKS are supported. P2P is also available on all servers except the United States.
In terms of speed, we got varying results. Speeds were good in general with minor differences on a server-to-server basis.
According to Perfect Privacy’s privacy policy, no logging or any user specific activity data is kept, neither are any other types of data. Not even connection logs, though they can be displayed for your viewing pleasure. The only three specific data sought are login credentials, email address and account expiration date. This is good news and comes as close as it can to making your VPN experience fulfill its number one priority: anonymity.
You can connect to Perfect Privacy’s VPN via two main security protocols: OpenVPN or IPSec. The official website – unlike elsewhere – makes a good effort to explain the difference between the two, their advantages and disadvantages. OpenVPN uses AES-256 encryption in every case. IPSec however, varies based on the device you use. The default setting is AES-256 in this case too, but it is very possible that mobile devices are not supported in this matter – a 128-bit encryption sounds more likely. Instead, since those connections go through dedicated applications, SSH2 tunnels are also available in their case.
Perfect Privacy supports a good range of devices. Conforming to the standards of these days, Windows 8 (OpenVPN/IPSec, HTTP proxy, TOR, IKEv2), 7 (OpenVPN/IPSec, SSH2, HTTP proxy, TOR, IKEv2), and Vista (OpenVPN/IPSec) users can establish their VPN connection. It is quite strange though that no support is available for Windows XP, considering that they were founded in 2008. Mac OS X is also welcome (via Tunnelblick) and so is Linux Debian/Ubuntu (OpenVPN manually).
Mobile and other devices come in a similar range; the iPad and iPhone (IPSec, L2TP, PPTP, OpenVPN), Android (IPSec, PPTP, OpenVPN) are the mobile options available. In terms of routers, DD-WRT and TomatoUSB should provide connections. Overall, selection is fair, and some up-and-coming devices could be included in the future. As far as security protocol options, the more popular devices enjoy excellent service, while less used ones suffer a tad bit.
Perfect Privacy’s prices are probably the preposterous part of their product. Before any mention of numbers, it’s also noteworthy that the company does not run a free trial program and does not practice a refund policy. These alone could bleed out a vein or two, but sadly in the name of the “perfect privacy”, which they do come quite close to, has a hefty price. One month costs €16.49, about $18.23 every month. Three months is less expensive, with €14.98 ($16.57 per month. Half a year fares at €14.16 monthly, that is around $15.66. The annual plan costs €12.50 every 30 days; that translates into $13.83. And finally, there is a 24-month package, too – its €10.41 price is the most advantageous, but its $11.51 per month counterpart is still more expensive than most one-month offers.
Considering the truly stellar selection of safety options provided, prices are still a bit too high. Their best package – the 24-month one – compared to other annual prices even costs more than two times as much. It is completely understandable that with this high level of privacy and security there should be a bigger palm, reaching out towards wallets. But you must consider that if all of the bonus features are enabled, your VPN connection will suffer from major speed reductions. That said, the best scenario is to either have a very fast internet connection by default or just not opt to enable all of the features, which is unused capacity that you paid for. Thus we feel like prices are indeed high.
Payment options include an extended list: MasterCard, Maestro, Visa, PayPal, Bitcoin, LAVApay, Webmoney, Sofort, Perfect Money, litecoin, OK PAY, Visa Qiwi wallet, eCoin, paxum, liqpay and EGOpay are all included – a great selection.
Several forms of support are available. E-mail-based contact is quick and informative, and even PGP is supported. You can similarly send in a ticket via the form found on the official website. There is also a public forum, if you seek a more sociable atmosphere. Help comes mostly in English and German there, although the community is a bit less active than e-mail assistance, for example. To further provide good news, you can call for a remote desktop session via the e-mail or ticket options. The reason for this is that this form of assistance requires some setting up.
Overall, we were not disappointed; help options are better than average, and responses were quick or relatively quick. The only thing we missed is a live chat option, but otherwise this part of Perfect Privacy’s service is similarly complete, like the rest.
Living up their name, Perfect Privacy is really focused on providing you the best and most widespread options to disappear on the internet. With many built-in features, most of which are not even available elsewhere (or they cost extra money) are parts of the standard package here. Unfortunately, the excellence that Perfect Privacy offers has a price; a price that should be more expensive than the rest for a good reason. However, we feel like they threw the hammer a bit too far. And while you can’t call the size of Perfect Privacy’s server network spectacular, it does host enough servers in a good number of locations. The client isn’t plug and play, but it doesn’t have a steep learning curve and puts you in full control of your VPN setup. Furthermore, their guides and customer support do a great job in helping unleash all the power that sits in this VPN service.
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Sorry, but this review has several severe issues!
Among thise are:
1. All servers have 1 Gbps bandwidth
2. The rare IPv6 support is not mentioned here
3. Perfect Privacy has a 7 days free trial
4. Perfect Privacy has a money back guarantee
My verdict about this review: grade F
Hello Martin1, and thanks for your feedback.
We try our best to have our reviews always up to date. We’re constantly on the lookout for product updates and include those changes in our reviews as soon as possible. However, we’re a small team that covers a great amount of software, and sometimes it takes some time to go over a few providers. That’s the case with Perfect Privacy. We’ll do our best to go over this review and include all the new features available.
We hope you have a good day and continue to enjoy Perfect Privacy!